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Cold War in Asia
In 1949, the Communists was led by Mao Zedong who had taken power in China. That's what raised alarms in Washington at the time -
Korean War
When South Korea was invaded was when the Korean War began and the Soviet and Chinese supported the Communist in North Korea. -
Korean War Ended
After three long years and almost 37,000 American lives lost, the was ended in a stalemate. American officials were afraid that the rest of Asia could also fall. "You have a row of dominoes set up; you knock over the first one," Eisenhower said in 1954, "and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly." The "domino theory" became the foundation of American policy in Vietnam for the next two decades. -
Domino Theory
The beginning of 1954, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent military advisers to train when U.S. became involved gradually. They armed the South Vietnamese Army in its fight against the Communists. -
Presidnet John F. Kennedy took office
"Now we have a problem in making our power credible, and Vietnam is the place," he said in a speech that year. -
Kennedy's Assassination
By the time Kennedy was assassinated, American military advisers in Vietnam had risen from fewer than 700 to 16,000, and fighting had intensified -
A murky episode
Two North Vietnamese gun boats had attacked Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. This gave the president authority to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against forces of the United States and to prevent further aggerssion." -
A War Fought on TV
The full-scale military intervention began in 1965 with the arrival in Da Nang of the first U.S. combat troops, over 200,000 U.S. troops were in Vietnam by the end of the year. -
Victory
The war was still going but the Americans were aiming for a victory. As Walt Rostow, John's National Security Adviser, put it in 1967: "I see the light at the end of the tunnel." -
Tet Offensive, Series of attacks,
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"Vietnamization"
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Henry Kissinger, Presidnet Richard M. Nixon's Secretary of State and National Security Advisor
"Vietnam is still with us... It has created doubts about American judgment, about American credibility, about American power--not only at home, but throughout the world." - Henry Kissinger -
President Nixon, Succeeded Johnson
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"Vietnamization"
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First war to watch on TV
The Vietnam war was the first war to be watched on TV. "Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America," media scholar Marshall McLuhan wrote in 1975, "not on the battlefeilds of Vietnam." -
American embassy in Saigon
The last helicpoter lifted off the roof of the American embassy in Saigon, carrying about 400 evacuees to nearby U.S. warships.